Finding Lash
by EternalFluffy
Summary: Gill finds a couple of family members he never knew he had, but when his troublemaking nephew, Lash runs away, it's up to him and Dory to track him down! Sequel to Finding Home
1. The Currents of Change

Gill, Marlin, Nemo, Dory, and all the others who are not Mr. Skimmer belong to Disney and Pixar. The Skimmer guy's mine.

Okay, this isn't a very good starting chapter, as the most important new characters don't appear until the next chapter. Although this is a sequel to "Finding Home", it's _much_ different, the first major difference is the perspective change. This story uses a third-person POV for the most part, because the focus is not just on Gill anymore. This makes it easier for anyone to read, even if they haven't read the first. Just know that Gill managed to get out of the tank, separated from the rest of the gang, and is now living and working where Nemo is. I know I mentioned things in the summary that aren't here. The title's namesake doesn't even appear until chapter 2.

I might not actually finish the story, because I have so many different fics to write, but I'll just post what I have for now… Enjoy it anyway.

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Chapter 1: The Currents of Change

An endless expanse of pure multihued blue spread over this quaint village. Many obscure tones clashed as they danced back and forth together. Back and forth…back and forth… Faint glimmers of sunlight peeked their way through the thick curtain. With an azure backdrop all around them, it seemed like just a normal, clear day in the neighborhood, however the trees were giant stalks of swaying coral, and the everyday citizens were fish in a codependent environment. Even in what seems like vast unity, there are still pieces missing…mysteries waiting to be exposed in the bright lights of the Great Barrier Reef. This is Eco Valley, with unity as its most prized possession.

Great masses of colorfully patterned fish swerved through coral mazes. These groups came to an abrupt halt as one big red fish zoomed into the middle, spreading its fins. No one seemed to care. Many would assume that the others would complain about it, yelling at this defiant fish to get out of their way, but none made such a motion. It was only the law.

The red fish gestured with one fin and allowed two pedestrians to cross between the waiting streams. As she made her way to the other side, the blue pedestrian turned and waved to the red crossing guard.

"Good day, Mr. Crossing Guard!"

The crossing guard looked a little surprised, since no one ever said anything to him while he was on duty, but waved back to her anyway.

The blue fish's partner, an orange clownfish, grabbed her yellow-tipped fin and pulled her towards their unknown destination. It was hard to tell exactly where they were going since the reef was a blur of colors and shapes; it was brain-wracking just trying to figure out where one reef section ended and another one began. "I know you're just trying to be friendly and fair to everyone," the clownfish began. "But do you have to greet every single fish we come across?"

"I didn't greet every single fish," the blue Dory replied. "I didn't say hello to all of those fish on the side that were being held up…" She gasped and put a fin over her mouth, as if she had just remembered something she had forgotten to do. "Yeah…I guess I forgot about them! I better go say hi to them!" Dory began to jet off back to the waterway.

Marlin the clownfish quickly reacted, slapping his orange and black fin over hers and keeping her within reach. "No, no, you can say hi to them later. That'll probably just hold them up even more."

Dory looked a bit disappointed, but slid back beside her friend anyway. It looked unusual and very comical to see the little clownfish calming the much bigger regal blue tang like a small child.

The reef opened up like a big yawning mouth below them and the sandy cliff tumbled into an equally sandy valley. This was the pickup clearing, where Dory and Marlin always came to drop off/pick up their son/adopted nephew, Nemo. From the fact that little Nemo wasn't paddling along beside them, and that Eco Valley's town shell bell showed 2:15 as the official time, it was pickup, not drop off.

Once they whooshed down into the sandy clearing, Dory happily said good morning to all of the parents waiting with them. Lately, waiting felt strange since the parents could actually see and hear the end of the class. Well, at least on Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Marlin stared at his son proudly and watched as he picked up a piece of stripped seaweed and made marks in the sand.

The mini shell bell embedded in the nearby sand rang. "You know what that means, kids," a deep voice said. The little fish all packed away their seaweed "quills" and waved to the teacher.

Nemo came zooming towards Marlin and Dory. "Hi Dad! Hi Aunt Dory! Did you see that? Look what I can do!" He pulled out his seaweed quill and wrote something in the sand. Marlin stared at the symbols in bewilderment. He had never learned how to read, so he was very happy his son was learning, although it made him feel a little inferior.

Dory hovered up and read what he had written. "N-Nemo. Nemo? What's a Nemo?" Nemo giggled.

"Dory! _I'm_ Nemo!"

"Really?" Dory said. "So that's your name. You can write your name!" Nemo beamed proudly.

"Yup," said that same deep voice. "Shark Ba…uh, Nemo's doing very well in class."

"Uncle Gill!" Nemo cried. "You're coming with us on our family outing, right?"

Gill, the Moorish idol teacher and friend of the family turned to look at Marlin. "Well, if it's alright with the rest of the family…"

Marlin smiled. "Sure, why not?" We haven't done something with all four of us in a while." When Gill had first come to Eco Valley, Marlin had had mixed emotions about him. He was afraid just because, well, he was a frightening fish. His piercing gaze and stony frown often turned other fish away from him. Marlin was jealous, mainly because Gill could read and write- two things that Marlin was certain he'd never be able to do. He had also had some buried anger, since he had no idea what his true intentions were. At first he thought he might even be trying to take Nemo away from him! However, the more time they spent together, the more those awkward emotions had dissolved.

The father, son, and the adopted uncle and aunt began to swim off in the opposite direction. "So, where are we going?" Nemo asked. "You didn't tell me."

"It's a surprise!" Dory cried. "Oooh, I love surprises!"

"Actually, I don't really know," Marlin admitted. "We'll think of something."

Suddenly, a pair of long, flat "wings" spread over the area above them. A large, spotted ray whooshed down and landed like a flying saucer in front of them. "Hi, Mr. Ray!" Nemo cried. "You're coming with us too?!"

Mr. Ray chuckled. "Uh, maybe some other day. I'm really here because I need to speak with you, Mr. Gill." The ray swiveled his protruding eyes to gaze in Gill's direction.

Gill swam up to him and excused himself from the rest of the group for a moment. As he hovered away, just a few inches behind the ray's spotted and segmented tail, his mind reeled wondering what in the world he would need to see him for. Mr. Ray slipped behind a very large grayish rock and Gill stopped right behind him.

"Does this have something to do with my teaching?" Gill immediately asked. That was his worst fear at this time, that Mr. Ray would fire him. Then again, he didn't really have the right to fire him. He was only a fellow teacher. Realizing this important fact, Gill now glared at Mr. Ray, seeing him as an equal, unworthy of kicking him off the Eco Valley school faculty. Then again, the Eco Valley school faculty consisted of just him and Mr. Ray.

"No, no," Mr. Ray immediately answered, submitting to his glare. "I need to speak with you about recruiting another member." Recruiting another member? What would Gill have to do with recruitment?

"Anyway…" Mr. Ray continued. "I had a meeting with the school board of this side of the Great Barrier Reef recently and I told them all about how you began teaching here. They don't particularly like the fact that you're teaching without a certification, but…that's not the point!"

Gill was giving the ray another one of those looks and he couldn't stand it. Although, it didn't really matter to Gill anymore, if he needed to, he'd go and get a certification; he just didn't want to leave the children.

"So…" Mr. Ray barreled on. "I told them about your statement that day…" It was obvious what he was talking about. Everyone remembered that day when Gill had made a big, rousing speech in the middle of the pickup clearing about the need of the students to have a well-rounded knowledge, and not just the subject of science. This had been his reason for needing an English teacher. Every single parent that had been there that day would never forget that speech. Mr. Ray obviously hadn't forgotten it either. He revealed that he had recited parts of it to the school board and they had completely agreed. "So now," Mr. Ray continued. "They want me to find a suitable math teacher."

"A math teacher?" Gill asked. "And how does this concern me? You want me to double as a math teacher?"

"Oh no, or course not! I'm not going to make you do any more than you're doing right now. I just wanted to know if you knew anyone who would make a good math teacher."

"I'll think about it," Gill told him. Then, it struck him like a bolt of lightning. It was one of those brainstorms he was famous for. This one, unlike many of the others, didn't require premeditated planning, but it was just as good as anything else. "Mr. Ray?" Gill spoke up again, turning back around for a minute.

"Yes?" the spotted ray responded, his hopeful tone obvious.

"I'll see."

Mr. Ray looked perplexed. Gill swam away with a smile on his face, knowing exactly what he was thinking- "that's it?!" As he moved closer to the pickup clearing, the two orange blobs and the blue blob molded into the shapes of Marlin, Nemo, and Dory.

"What happened?" Dory immediately asked. "Oh, sorry, was it a _secret_ meeting?"

"It had something to do with your teaching, didn't it?" Marlin said. "Was he giving you advice? He's not going to kick you out, is he?"

"Don't worry," Gill told him. "We've just got a place to go now."

"Where?" Dory cried. "Where are we going?"

"Field trip?" Nemo asked, a bit confused.

"Just follow me," Gill told them. He turned his black-and-white tipped tail and began paddling away towards the edge of Eco Valley.

Marlin was a little apprehensive about following this secretive Moorish idol. He still didn't _really_ know him… Marlin shook his striped head. _Bravery_, he reminded himself, _trust_. Those were two things he needed to keep telling himself to have. He had gotten more used to these concepts, but he still had a few slips, reverting back to his old paranoia once in a while. However, Marlin seriously considered making the about-face when Gill led them over the borderline of the Eco Valley reef section. Just where was he taking them?

This section of the reef was very similar to Eco Valley, although there were a few less fish and it did not dip down here and there. Marlin noticed the fish whispering to each other as they passed. Something about this just didn't seem right.

Nemo looked up to see his father swimming beside him. "It's okay, Dad," the little clownfish said. "They're not staring at us." Instead, they were staring at Gill, glancing sideways at him.

At last, Gill reached a small clearing, a bit like the pickup one back at Eco Valley. "You wait here," he told them and swam out into the middle.

"What's he doing?" Nemo wondered aloud.

"There's no one there," Dory said. "Even I can see that." But this time, Dory was mistaken.

"Skimmer," Gill summoned, and a long light brown skate suddenly rose from the ground.

His small eyes grew a bit wider. "I…I didn't really think you'd come back."

Gill smiled at him. "I don't break promises."

"He must know that skate!" Dory whispered intensely, as if she had just uncovered some remarkable secret.

"Well, that's obvious," Marlin commented, "But how? And why is he talking to him now?"

Dory rubbed her fins together. "Ooooh, spying on other fish is so exciting!"

"Shh," Nemo hissed. "I can't hear what they're saying!" The three family members shut their mouths and eavesdropped happily.

"Anyway," Gill was explaining. "I wanted your opinion on your old job. Did you enjoy teaching us? Well, I know "us" isn't a good term. Did you enjoy teaching in general?"

Mr. Skimmer took a deep breath. "Well, I always _used _to enjoy teaching…" He shuddered a little bit. "I…well, to tell you the truth, I'm a bit afraid of teaching nowadays."

Gill frowned and nodded. "I understand." A moment of complete silence passed between them. Dory, Marlin, and Nemo held their breath. Dory was dramatizing this so much, that if they hadn't begun talking again in a little while, she would have burst out in a yell, the suspense too much for her.

"I…well…I saw it."

Gill looked up at Mr. Skimmer, his face unreadable. "Saw what?"

"Saw what?" Mr. Skimmer replied, aghast. "You know what! The war! I nearly died in that war! It wasn't that they hated me, I was just…in their way…"

The three family members looked at each other. "What is he talking about?" Dory asked. Both clownfish shrugged.

Gill swam a little closer. "Calm down now," he tried to comfort the scared old skate. "It's all over. They're gone now, and you'll never have to see them again."

"Kids," Mr. Skimmer spat. "Kids are some of the cruelest fish in the sea."

Gill nodded. "Yes, some kids can be. I know that all too well, but…" he glanced back at Marlin, Dory, and Nemo's corner. "…Not all kids." At last, Gill turned completely around and called over to them. "Nemo! Come here for a moment. There's someone I want you to meet."

Nemo took a deep breath and plunged out into the clearing. Mr. Skimmer seemed frightening with his grouchy frown, and he nearly turned back. As he grew closer to the looming skate, he felt the shadow of Gill over him and relaxed once again. If anything bad happened, Gill would protect him.

"Mr. Skimmer, I'd like you to meet my student, and adopted nephew, Nemo."

"H-Hi, nice to meet you," Nemo stuttered uneasily. Dory wiggled, itching to barrel up and introduce herself too, but Marlin grabbed her fin and held her tightly to the ground.

"Well, hello there, Nemo," Mr. Skimmer replied after about five seconds. "You're a clownfish, right? Slowly, he smiled. "Clownfish are cute."

"In Eco Valley, I'm the only Moorish idol," Gill explained. "Many of the children are no bigger or more threatening than little Nemo here. Sure, it has its troublemakers, but they aren't evil. Take the bully, Honey Nut for instance. He causes havoc just because he's sick and tired of being compared to his other ten brothers…" Gill went off on a big list of his students and their personal problems. Nemo watched with shock. He had no idea his classmates had so many problems. "I believe in a strong student-teacher relationship. You get to know kids and they become almost like family to you, while you're providing them with useful information. That's what teaching is all about…" Gill gradually trailed off. He took a deep breath again.

"We're looking for a Math teacher. You might not agree with me, but I think you'd be perfect for the job. A ray is already working there as a science teacher; believe me, the kids all love your kind…"

Mr. Skimmer immediately shook his head. "No. No, I can't teach again. Not after an experience like that…"

Gill looked him in the eyes. "We need you," he slowly said. "I don't know where else we'd find a certified Math teacher. You just have to trust me…"

"Please!" Nemo suddenly cried. "We're not gonna hurt you, I promise! None of us are that bad." Mr. Skimmer seemed surprised at his sudden outburst of concern.

Gill stared back at him. "We never break our promises." Another silent moment passed.

At last, Mr. Skimmer gathered his wind. "Well…yeah, okay. I'll try it again."

Nemo almost yelled, "Yea!" but contained himself, as no one else seemed to be celebrating. Gill didn't even crack a smile.

"Okay then," he said. "Come back with us, and we'll get you set up for a test class. If all goes well, then you may have yourself a new job."

The skate was led up to Dory and Marlin and introduced. Then, they all trooped back to Eco Valley, Gill leading the way. He spoke with Mr. Ray as soon as they got back and introduced him to Mr. Skimmer.

Now it was Gill's turn to worry. He didn't want to further traumatize the poor skate by putting him in an uncomfortable position, but he was highly experienced, and was the most qualified teacher he knew. That night, Gill decided he would wait until later tomorrow to find out what was going on at the pickup clearing.

The next day, he found himself defying his decision and trying to discretely sneak by the area and catch a snatch of the conversation. So far, all seemed calm. There had been no mass breakouts of chaos yet. The minute the school's shell bell rang, Gill went flying into the clearing and slipped next to Marlin and Dory.

"Gill?" Marlin asked. "We're picking up Nemo today."

"I know," Gill replied. He swam up and tried to get a look at Mr. Skimmer. Finally, the crowds of students began to part, meeting up with their parents and filtering out of the way.

At last, Mr. Skimmer was visible in the middle of the group…and he was smiling.

Gill returned his grin. "So, I trust everything went well?"

"They were listening to me!" Mr. Skimmer said with surprise. "They listened, and they cooperated…they actually like the shell game I made up!" Two days later, to no one's surprise, Mr. Skimmer was officially hired as Eco Valley's first Math teacher.

In the last year, many things had changed about this peaceful little village. The whole school system had begun to reform, and soon with the currents of change now flowing from the north this would not be the end of it. The life of a fish was on the cusp of a startling revelation that would forever change his life. Something was on its way this very moment- something that would also give Eco Valley a shock to its system and define exactly what family was.


	2. New Arrivals

Disclaimer same as before. Goldie and Lash I made up.

This is when the real bulk of the story begins. This actually should be the first chapter… I know it's kinda short, and it goes a little too fast, but here it is anyway. Yep, I have another factual error. I know younger Moorish idols are taller than the older ones, but having Lash be bigger than Gill would be kind of strange. I defined nature and made him smaller, and I like him that way. Also the little "theory" I came up with is factually wrong, because they're different species, but oh well. I'm famous for my errors anyway.

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Chapter 2: New Arrivals

At the very tip of the Eco Valley cliffs, a reddish fish with blue stripes, related to Gill's student, Bobo, emerged from down below. He always liked to be here at the absolute start of the day. Here, the world began anew again, and everything old and tarnished was wiped away as the cleansing morning light passed over it. It was a magical moment, and this particular fellow wouldn't miss it for the world.

As he blinked in the newborn light, two kite-like shapes materialized in the far distance. The darkened kites moved closer and closer. The Bobo relative chattered his teeth. What were those things? Where had they come from? What did they want from him? The bigger one was curved at the end, while the smaller one was more pointed. Even though one was small and appeared harmless, Bobo's relative thought of them as sinister and menacing, advancing on him in the darkness, readying for attack… The frightened reddish fish was just about to turn tail and jet away, when the two dark shapes moved closer.

The bright light poking through the water bathed them in a recognizable glow. They weren't monsters, or strange moving shapes, but fish. Bobo's relative squinted at these fish. They weren't very familiar. In fact, he had only remembered seeing one other fish like them in all his life. They were thin and tall, with black and white stripes, including a hint of yellow. Their dorsal fins were very long and trailed behind them as they swam.

Finally, the reddish fish swam down away from the scene. As he streamed through the bustling civilization, he bumped into a different striped fish that he knew. "Hutch!" he cried. "I just saw these weird fish! I think they're rare or something! They were black and white with a yellow hue…" he described to his friend exactly what he saw.

"You saw a Moorish idol?" he confirmed. "Well, I don't doubt it. They're not rare, but we don't have many around here. There is one that I know of here in Eco Valley…"

"But there were two of them," Bobo's relative insisted. "A big one and a small one."

Hutch looked interested. "Hmm…where are they? Do you know?"

"Right this way!" Bobo's relative cried. The long, striped fish and the yellow-and-blue patterned fish zoomed, one behind the other towards the topmost portion of Eco Valley.

"You were up here again?" Hutch said, glancing at his friend- his friend who was a very good candidate for the insane asylum. Hutch had always wondered what he always got up so early for. Who would want to get up at daybreak just to marvel at the sunrise? At least, this fish was the only one he knew who did. "Y'know, maybe you just saw some little bannerfish. They look a lot like Moorish idols…"

Bobo's relative waved his head. "Well, one of them was small, but the other was big! It was about the size of the crossing guard!"

"Whatever you say," Hutch sighed. He looked out at the open water where his pal was hovering. "So…where are they?"

"I don't know!" the friend cried. "They were just here a minute ago!"

Hutch rolled his eyes. "C'mon, let's get back to civilization. If there really are more Moorish idols here, then someone else will welcome them." As much as the Bobo relative protested, Hutch grabbed his fin and dragged him back down into the maze-like coral.

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Many varying colors and patterns weaved together in a patch of coral near the north end of Eco Valley. A common sight to the fish that lived here, it was a complex and admirable work to those who never saw such things. Suddenly, one striped pattern moved. This wasn't unusual- perhaps it was a piece of the background wavering in the current. This was what Gill liked about his stripes. As long as he moved slowly and surrounded himself with tall sea plants that covered his dorsal fin, he was nearly invisible. Finally, he could get away from the city rush and just revel in the glory of the ocean without anyone bothering him.

These pristine colors and patterns were wondrous for Gill, as only a year ago he'd been trapped in a suffocating glass prism, seeing the same old thing every single day. After 630 of these days, it was heaven just to be seeing something different. Gill settled down in the coral forest and took a deep breath. Normally, because of his slight asthma problem, he wouldn't have been able to take so deep of a breath, but the water in Eco Valley was so pure, it slid easily through his gills.

He was relieved from his teaching duties for today, since it was Thursday, and Mr. Ray was taking the class on a science "expedition" somewhere in another part of the reef. He closed his eyes and tried to just relax for a while. Recently he hadn't had much time to relax, with the reports to be filed, the papers to grade, the meetings to go to, and his occasional visits to Nemo, Dory, and Marlin. As of now, Gill was Eco Valley's only Moorish idol, but just like the section's school system, all that was suddenly about to change.

"Are we there yet?" a little voice floated through the water.

Gill opened one eye. Where had that voice come from? There was no one around. He closed his eye again, thinking that he'd probably just been dreaming the voice.

This time, a different voice, a light, pleasant female voice wrapped around him. "The question isn't 'are we there yet?' the question is 'where are we?'."

"The reef," the little voice replied. "We're _still _in the reef. We've been in the reef since last week!"

"No," the female voice replied. "I know that. I mean, which part of the reef are we in?"

At last, Gill opened both of his eyes. If these fish were lost, he should tell them where they are, at least. He glided back into the water and pushed the waving coral stalks out of the way with his long snout. "Excuse me…is someone there?" There was no answer. They must not have heard me, Gill immediately thought, but another thought in the back of his head said, "Maybe you've finally gone mad and are hearing voices." At last, he emerged from the coral tangle, looking around for the source of the voices.

When he turned to the left, he couldn't hold in his gasp. Floating about a yard away was a female Moorish idol, looking strangely at him. She was holding the fin of a young male Moorish idol, who looked almost angry. He yanked his fin out of the female's grasp and crossed them just in front of his chin. The female continued to stare at Gill as if he had something wrong with him.

At last, Gill managed to unfreeze himself. "Oh…ah…pardon me. This place is called Eco Valley, and actually, I'm the only Moorish idol that lives here. I haven't seen any of my own kind in a long time."

"Really?" the female Moorish idol said. "That's strange. Why is that?"

"Well…you probably don't want to hear this, but...in a neighboring reef section, there was a big family of Moorish idols…" The lady's eyes grew a little wider. "When they grew up, they all turned on each other and began a Moorish idol civil war…eventually killing them all…" Her eyes grew wider. "Thankfully, I managed to escape before the war even started…"

Now, the lady Moorish idol's eyes were about to pop out of her head. She opened her mouth and her breath came in gasps. "Oh…my…God…" Gill expected her to be shocked, but not _this _shocked.

"Oh…my God!" she cried, this time breaking into a smile. "You're…you're the one who ran away! You…they used to pick on you; the little one with the asthma…"

Now, Gill was shocked. He froze there with wide eyes. "How…how do you know that?!"

The female Moorish idol grinned. "You're my brother! My long-lost brother!"

Gill was totally blown away. "You're my sister?! But…that can't be. I thought I was the only one that survived…"

At last, his supposed sister calmed down. "I'm Goldie," she explained. "I didn't think you'd remember my name because I don't remember yours. What was it?"

"Gill," he replied. "After my gill problem."

"Oh, yeah," Goldie said. "I remember that now." She gestured to the little boy floating next to her. "This is my son, Whiplash, but we just call him Lash for short. Lash, I'd like you to meet your uncle, Gill."

"Hey there, kid," Gill said, trying to be casual and friendly.

Lash only glared back at him. "You mean to tell me this strange guy is my uncle?"

Goldie was appalled. "Lash!" she cried. "Don't be rude!"

"Okay, okay," Lash finally said. "Hi, uncle."

Goldie frowned. "Don't mind him. He's in a bad mood." She swam up beside Gill. "C'mon let's find somewhere to rest and we'll exchange stories."

The two long –lost siblings paddled along back down into the coral forest. Gill was a little hesitant, since this fish was a total stranger claiming to be his sister. But how could she know the kind of information she had if she _weren't _his sister? They finally halted at a small cleared-away space in between the wavering plants.

"So," Goldie began. "You start."

Gill stared at her and then realized that she wanted him to tell his story. He began at the very beginning, recalling his departure from the reef cavern, being attacked, lost in Shock Rope Ship, captured and put in the dentist's fish tank, and eventually ending up in Eco Valley.

"Wow," Goldie commented. "Well, my story isn't quite as…adventurous, but I'll tell it to you anyway." Lash, who had been busy a few moments ago, bending and snapping coral branches, suddenly froze and stared at them. Goldie began her tale:

"Oh, it was terrible. About eighteen years after you left the cavern, it began. It was gruesome and the most horrible thing I have ever seen. Every single Moorish idol in the cavern began to turn against each other, each struggling for dominance. Blood was everywhere… body parts…it was terrible…" Goldie paused for a moment and covered her eyes in shock.

Finally, she resumed her tragic tale. "Well, in the fray, I managed to slip away from the cavern. I was always trying to escape from the battlefield, but I realized that if I even tried to get away, they'd hunt me down and kill me too. When I finally got loose, I just swam for life, as fast as I could go. Eventually, I reached a small village where I thought it was safe to hide out. I lived most of my life in the village, and met a Moorish idol man named Whirlwind. We fell in love, and Whirlwind and I were married two years later. Soon after, we decided to start a family. Tragically, carnivorous fish came and ate all the eggs, except for Lash, who was hidden underneath the ledge of a rock. Whirlwind and I were devastated, but we were happy with the one son that we did have. When Lash was four, things began to change…"

Goldie glanced back and noticed Lash staring at them, so she whispered the next few words to Gill. "Whirlwind was beginning to grow restless. He'd heard of a revolution beginning to the west. Fish were planning to all join together and conduct a crusade against humans. Whirlwind was itching to go away to the war, but I kept insisting otherwise. "You need to stay here! You have a son! You need to be there for him!" But Whirlwind still wouldn't listen. One day, we just woke up, and he was gone."

Gill stared at her in fascination. He thought _he _had had a rough life, but his suffering was nothing compared to watching your siblings destroy each other, losing hundreds of children, and your spouse running off on you.

Goldie sighed. "So I took Lash and the two of us have been traveling the ocean ever since, looking for a place to stay. At least now I know that the others won't come looking for me. I passed the cavern and I…"

"…saw the skeletons?" Gill finished. "Yeah, I saw them too. That's why I believed that all of my brothers and sisters were dead by now. Skimmer even said they were."

"He wouldn't know about my escape," Goldie explained. "They had him tied up near the entrance. They said that as soon as a leader had been selected, they would kill him. Of course, they never found a leader, and he eventually managed to break free."

Gill now glanced around Goldie. There was just something that didn't seem right about this whole explanation. Goldie had a bit of yellow tinge. If Goldie had the yellow tinge too, how come the other brothers and sisters hadn't picked on her just as much?

Goldie noticed him glancing suspiciously around her, and opened her mouth to give an explanation. "Oh, I forgot to explain…you probably would not have known, since you were so young when you ran away…" She gestured down to her glowing yellow side. "I do have a little bit of the yellow coloring that you have. You know that our mother and father were different in appearance, but they were actually altogether different species. Dad was a Moorish idol, like you are, but Mom was a bannerfish, a "false Moorish idol". This was why the others looked different. It's a theory that half the eggs were Moorish idol and the other half were bannerfish. The eggs that were eaten were probably the rest of the Moorish idol eggs, and you were the only Moorish idol egg that survived. I, on the other hand, was egg number 99, right before yours, in between the bannerfish and the Moorish idols. I'm a hybrid- half bannerfish and half Moorish idol."

Now, Gill was even more intrigued.

At this point, little Lash glided up. "But not me! I'm 100 pure Moorish idol, thank you very much."

Gill frowned, knowing that even though he was a Moorish idol, Lash couldn't possibly be "100 pure" Moorish idol. There had to be some bannerfish chromosomes in him somewhere. Gill was still unsure and apprehensive about this whole concept, but he decided to help them anyway, even if they weren't really his sister and nephew.

He immediately swam off to Flat Plat Acres and got Goldie and Lash a cavern to stay in. Goldie was extremely grateful, constantly thanking him and offering to return the favor, although Lash didn't seem to say anything at all. After helping them settle into their new home, he returned to his cavern on the dark side of the rock. He had a lot to think about.

Suddenly, he had a family he never knew, and that always was a difficult thing to deal with. Gill had never connected with any other fish of his kind on the planet, but a strange feeling started up in the pit of his soul when he thought of Goldie. Perhaps there _were _some kind Moorish idols out there. Or, that is, kind half- Moorish idols.


	3. Lash Goes to School

(See previous chapters for disclaimer)

Yay! Here's one of my favorite chapters, and one of the longest! You can go ahead and say how horrible Lash is in this chapter, but he's an interesting character to write about, and I enjoy his complexity. Once again, I most likely have factual errors…they wouldn't be able to paint underwater… but I don't really care.

Thank you so much, everyone who reviewed! Yeah, I know this fic defies the laws of nature…but I had to think of something… and for those of you who don't remember, I did mention the Moorish idol war in Chapter 10 of Finding Home, but it's okay if you don't remember it. That was a long time ago… So without further ado…here's chapter 3!

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Chapter 3: Lash Goes to School

The next day, after Goldie and Lash's arrival, Gill opened his eyes and glanced around the surrounding area. The world still looked the same. Had yesterday really happened at all? Gill shook himself. He had just been having another one of those incredibly realistic dreams again, that was it. How could he believe that such a thing had actually happened? He couldn't have found that he had a long-lost sister and nephew here in Eco Valley. No, it wasn't possible. Gill had had dreams about his siblings before, but they were always more like nightmares than dreams. Gill closed his eyes again. Goldie sure was a good figment of his imagination. Maybe if he went back to sleep, he'd have the same dream.

"Heeeeeey! Get uuuuuppp!" a little voice yelled from the cavern's mouth.

Gill's eyes popped open again. Floating just in front of the entrance were two fish with long dorsal fins and black and white streaks with yellow tinge. So, he _hadn't _been dreaming! Gill quickly pushed up into the water above him and felt ashamed for thinking that Goldie and Lash hadn't been real.

"Gill!" Goldie called. "I need to talk to you!"

At last, Gill emerged from the blackness of his cavern, blinking in the morning light penetrating the top of the sea. "I'm sorry, I wasn't expecting you at this hour," he tried to explain.

Goldie smiled, though. "I was very surprised, and I wanted to find out straight from you. A few local fish I spoke with said that you're an English teacher at the local Eco Valley School. Is that true?"

Gill smiled back at her. "Yes, I am. I was the only one of us that learned how to read and write human language, remember?"

Goldie shrugged. "I just remembered that you were the one that did well in school and was picked on constantly."

Gill shrugged. "Well, I can't say anything because I don't remember you at all."

"Anyway," Goldie began. "I wanted to know if you'd enroll Lash when you go to the school today."

"What?" Lash cried. "School? No! I don't want to go! Don't make me!"

"Lash, come on, honey. You went to school before. It wasn't that bad, was it? Besides, Uncle Gill will be your teacher, and you won't have to deal with some stranger who…"

"What are you talking about?" Lash cried. "He _is _a stranger!"

Gill couldn't argue that point. There was one thing he'd learned about Lash from the moment he met him- he was very blunt.

"I'm not going!" Lash cried, turning away and crossing his fins.

"You'll…you'll have to excuse his behavior. I've been trying to get help for him, but…well, he's a handful." Lash glared back at his mother.

"It's okay," Gill told her. "I think I can handle him." He dragged the resistant little Moorish idol out toward the direction of Nemo's anemone. He figured that once Lash was around kids his own age, he'd be better. The two strangers and family members floated just outside the rocking pink tendrils of the anemone. Inside, Marlin was busy getting Nemo ready, while Dory waited on the other side.

Gill turned, opening his mouth to try to make casual conversation with Lash, but Lash made it clear that he wanted to be left alone. He crossed his little black fins and turned his tail to his uncle, huffily. At last, Gill began to see orange shapes pushing their way through the tendril forest.

"Hi, Uncle Gill!" Nemo cried. "You're going to teach us today, right?"

Gill smiled. "Of course, every Friday, remember? Anyway, I've got someone here who I'd like you to meet." He glanced back and was relieved to find Lash facing his direction again. "Marlin, Nemo, this is my nephew, Lash."

Marlin was a bit taken aback. He hadn't known that Gill even _had _any family, but he thought everyone must have family somewhere. The worried father was still a bit apprehensive. He didn't mind Gill being so close to them, but bringing other fish into Nemo's life seemed a little too much.

"Oh, hi, Lash!" Nemo called, trying to be friendly. "Is he going to be going to school with me, Uncle Gill?"

"Wait a minute!" Lash cried, gliding up between Gill and Nemo. "First of all, my name's Whiplash! I hate being called Lash; it's a girl's name. Second, who gave you permission to call him uncle?"

"But I've called him Uncle Gill since he got here. See, we met a year ago in a fish tank, and Dory's my adopted aunt, so we just kind of adopted him into our family…"

"He's only your adopted uncle," Lash retaliated.

"It doesn't matter; I can still call him uncle if I want!" Nemo argued.

"But he's my _real_ uncle!" Lash cried. "So you can't call him uncle anymore. He's not your uncle; he's my uncle!"

At last, Gill grabbed Lash's tail and pulled him back beside him. "Alright Lash, that's enough. Nemo can call me whatever he wants to call me."

At that precise moment, a familiar, lighthearted voice rang through the water. "Good morning, Marvin! Good morning, Bozo! Good morning, Uncle Roadkill!"

Gill sighed. "Even Uncle Roadkill."

Dory twirled up, in a good mood, as always. "Hello, everyone!" she called. "You all ready for school? Wait a minute…something's different here…" Dory stopped in the middle of the water and counted everyone. "One…two…three…four…hmm, one, two, three, four…she looked over at Lash in the corner. "Well, hello there!" she called. "Who's this little guy?" Lash glared daggers at her.

"This is my nephew, Lash," Gill explained. "He just got here yesterday, along with his mother."

"Welcome to the valley, Lash," Dory said, trying to be friendly again. You look a lot like your uncle."

"Whiplash," Lash replied.

"Huh?" said Dory. "Was that code? Sorry, I don't speak code, just whale."

"Whiplash!" Lash cried. "Call me Whiplash!"

"Whiplash?" Dory repeated. "Okay, I'll call you that from now on." With that, the group of five began to swim off towards the pickup clearing.

"You're going to like school, um…Whiplash," Nemo said, still unhindered by the young Moorish idol's rude comments. "I'll introduce you to all my friends, okay?" Lash didn't respond, and just stared up at the water, into the distance.

Gill glanced back at them and took a deep breath. Something felt very bad about this. He could just imagine all the disasters that would happen because of Lash's presence. At last, they reached the center of the pickup clearing and Gill began greeting all of the students as they arrived for their English class. Afterwards, he quickly spoke to Mr. Ray and had Lash enrolled.

"Good morning, class," Gill addressed the group of students gathered in front of him. "Today we have a new student. Everyone, please welcome my nephew, Lash."

"How many times do I have to tell you- it's_ Whiplash_!" Lash yelled.

Gill was getting frustrated with this defiant nephew, but he tried his best to hold it in. "…Whiplash."

Later, Lash basically stared at the plants all day, since everyone else was so ahead of him. He tried to listen at first, but then he just grew aggravated and gave up.

Recess came right after a spelling quiz, and Gill was glad to unwind and correct quizzes for a half an hour. Looking after 24 young fish was extremely tiring, and especially with Lash. He made about three normal kids. Gill floated up behind his desk, pulled out a seaweed quill dipped in octopi ink and began grading the stack of papers.

Meanwhile, out in the middle of the clearing, the 24 young fish were separating into their little cliques. There were the two crabs- Psychedelic and Hawaiian Plus, the bullies- Honey Nut and Bobo, picking on a small crab named Noodle, the Mawspot Septuplets, three guys- Kiwi, Bandit, and Banana Split, girls- Molly Polly, Violet Nectar, and Freckles, and finally Nemo's group.

"Over here, Whiplash!" Nemo called to the cross little Moorish idol. Not knowing where else to go, Lash paddled over beside them, although he would have rather not seen Nemo again. "These are my friends, Tad, Pearl, and Sheldon."

"Hi, Whiplash," the butterfly fish, octopus, and seahorse said.

Lash just gave them a slight, grunted "hello."

"So what are we going to do today?" Tad asked. "Tag?"

"Nah, we did that yesterday," Sheldon argued. "What do you want to do, Whiplash?"

"Go home."

The three friends stared at each other in confusion. Was he actually really suggesting that they go home right now? "Um…well, we can't do that just yet," Nemo spoke up. "But we need to find some way to spend the time while we wait. How about Mother May I? That's a fun game. Have you ever played that, Whiplash?" There was no response from the grumpy Moorish idol.

"What about Red Fish, Green Fish?" Dead silence filled the area.

"Well, I like Red Fish, Green Fish," Pearl began. "I think we should play that."

"Or!" Sheldon suddenly proposed. "We could go exploring!"

That seemed to perk Lash up a bit. "Exploring? Where would we go?"

"Oh, just around the area a little bit," Sheldon said. "Just try to find something interesting."

"You guys," Nemo spoke up. "You know we're not supposed to wander away from the clearing. Uncle Gill would be mad…"

Suddenly, Lash smiled, for the first time Nemo had ever seen. "Aw, come on, Nemo, don't be such a party pooper. And he's _my _uncle!"

"Well, Nemo's right," Pearl admitted. "I don't want to get in trouble."

"Trouble, schrubble. Who cares about getting in trouble," Lash said. "Life is more than school. There are more important things than obeying all the rules, right Sheldon?"

Sheldon was a little nervous about the rebellious spirit of his classmate, but nodded, approvingly. "Yes, he's right! Why should we have to obey the rules all the time? C'mon, let's go exploring!"

"Sheldon!" Tad cried. "I still think this is a bad idea."

"I'm not going," Nemo announced.

"Me neither," Pearl decided.

"What, are you too afraid you'll get caught?" Lash challenged. "If you're brave, then you'll come with us!"

"We're not falling for that," Nemo called. "We won't go, and that's the end of it."

Lash glared at them. "If you don't come with us, I'll tell everyone else that you're big fat chickens and you're all goody-goody fun spoilers, and you'll have no friends at all."

Slowly, Tad swam out to join Sheldon and Lash. "I don't know about you, but I don't want to risk that," he said.

Nemo crossed his fins. "I won't be threatened into doing something bad. I'm staying right here."

Pearl nervously glanced over at him. Then, she swam up to join the others. "I'm going. Sorry, Nemo."

"Pearl!" Nemo cried. He sighed. "Oh, alright, but we better not got caught."

The five friends looked around to make sure that no one was watching. Then, they all slipped past the coral and seaweed into the reef world beyond. Lash and Sheldon led the way.

"Wow," Lash commented as they swam along. "It's actually pretty nice here. See what they're hiding from us? We shouldn't have to miss all this!"

Bright, multicolored fish swam overhead. A few of them glanced down, wondering what these youngsters were doing out of school, but they mostly paid no attention to the rebel group of students. Nemo had to agree, this reef section was beautiful, but he could just see it some other time when they weren't in school.

"This is really nice," he said from the back. "But couldn't we come see this some other day, like, when we're not in school?"

Lash shook his head from the front. "No. You see, my mom and I move around a lot. I don't stay in the same place for long, so I want to see all that I can whenever I have time."

Nemo clenched in his fins in aggravation. Already he resented Lash and hoped that he'd never have to see him again. Lash may have looked like a miniature version of Gill, but he was nothing at all like him.

At last, Sheldon stopped short. "Uh, I think we should start heading back now, before recess is over. We're not really allowed to go any farther than this."

"Why, what's over there that you're so afraid of?" Lash asked, swimming a bit farther. "Scaredy-catfish."

"No, really, we shouldn't go in there; it's dangerous," Sheldon tried to persuade him. "That's where the spotted groupers live!" Tad and Pearl murmured to each other in fear.

Lash put on his most disgusted look. "Aw, come on. You guys are scared of a buncha spotted groupers?"

Now even the bold Sheldon was beginning to turn on their foolish expedition leader. "Um…yeah. They're carnivores! They could eat all of us! This is the barrier that keeps them from entering Eco Valley and killing everyone! Do you have a death wish?"

"Yeah," Nemo added. "C'mon, let's all get back to the clearing." He turned his orange tail and began to paddle away, followed by Pearl, Sheldon, and Tad.

"Fine then," Lash's defiant voice shot out. "I'm going in. I'm not afraid of anything!" He turned his little tail and plunged into the dangerous beyond.

Nemo whipped around. "Whiplash!" There was no response. "Whiplash?! …Oh no, Uncle Gill isn't going to like this…"

Sheldon shook his little seahorse head. "Just let him stay there. He's the one that got us into this whole mess."

"No," Nemo disagreed. "No matter how much of a pain in the tail fin Whiplash is, we've got to save him from being eaten!"

Tad nodded. "He's wrong, we can be brave- when we need to be!" The four school friends sucked in a big gulp of the water around them, gathering up all of their courage to face the giant meat-eating fish.

"Okay," Nemo said, facing the seaweed entrance. "On the count of three. One…" Tad and Sheldon said their farewells, in case they didn't make it out of this. "…Two…" Pearl closed her eyes, wishing she were somewhere else…anywhere else but here. "…Three!"

The three of them charged together towards the seaweed, where the nightmare of spotted groupers waited for a group of little fish like them to come swimming into their mouths. Suddenly, just before they slipped through the border, a familiar little Moorish idol squeezed out, a look of horror on his face.

"Lash!" Nemo was so shocked he forgot to call Lash by his full name like he wanted.

"They're…they're coming!" Lash was so frantic and shaken, he didn't even notice. He pushed himself passed Nemo and his friends, swimming as fast as his little black fins would take him. The group stared at him as he rushed past.

"Um, what was that all…" Pearl didn't have to wonder for a second more. Just then, three spotted groupers came crashing through the wooden barrier just beyond the group of seaweed.

"AAAAAAUGH!" the little clownfish, seahorse, octopus, and butterfly fish screamed. They jetted away, the same way Lash had just gone. Nemo happened to glance back and wished he hadn't. The huge, hungry spotted groupers were right on their tails! He swam as fast as he could, ignoring the pounding of his little heart and the aching in his fin. Since he was faster than most of the others, Tad pushed Pearl and Sheldon forward, away from the gaping mouths of the carnivorous fish behind them. All this is Lash's fault! Nemo thought. His resentment for the little Moorish idol was even greater than before.

Meanwhile, back at the pickup clearing, everything was calm. Gill had finished grading the quizzes. He looked up to call all of the students back to class. Glancing around, he thought his class suddenly looked smaller than normal. In his head, he counted all the little sea creatures present in the clearing. There's them…and them…and them…and…hey, where's…just as Gill noticed the disappearance of Lash, Nemo and the others, there came a panicked voice, yelling from the distance.

"Groupers!!!" Lash screamed, darting into the clearing. The other students all turned and stared at him.

"Lash!" Gill cried, swimming up to meet his rebellious nephew. "Where have you been? And where are Shark Bait, Ink Jet, Sea Comb, and Thoroughbred?"

"Who?" Lash asked. "There's no time for that! A bunch of spotted groupers got loose and they're headed this way!"

"What?!" Gill cried. He glanced back at the other students. "Everyone, go hide in the coral there. I have to find Shark Bait and his friends!"

The other little fish zipped into the surrounding area to hide, but Gill didn't have to venture out to find Nemo, Tad, Pearl, and Sheldon, because they came swimming in the clearing just as the other students disappeared.

"There you are!" Gill cried. "You know you shouldn't…"

"Uncle Gill!" Nemo cried, interrupting his lecture. "Swim! The groupers are…" The little clownfish never got a chance to finish. The three big red spotted groupers burst into the clearing.

Gill quickly grabbed the five children and dragged them away as the hungry carnivores charged at them. The groupers' protruding lips began to part, opening their mouths, readying for the kill. "Quick!" Gill cried. "Grab my fin!"

"But…" Nemo began to contradict this order, explaining that they were too much for him.

"No buts!" Gill cried, and the five little fish readily obeyed. Nemo, Tad, and Lash grabbed Gill's long dorsal fin, while Sheldon gripped Lash's with his curly seahorse tail. Pearl frantically searched around for some kind of foothold, and at last chomped down hard on Sheldon's nose. Normally, Sheldon would yell and shake her off, but this was an emergency situation. It was better to have a wounded snout than a dead friend.

Gill grabbed onto the biggest piece of coral he could find, and it was a good thing too. Just as he hooked himself to the bumpy coral branch, the groupers began a fierce suction current, trying to suck them into their mouths. A grouper's mouth suction wasn't all that strong, but with three of them doing it all at the exact same time, the normal strength was multiplied by three. Sheldon and Pearl bounced up and down on Lash's bobbing filamentous extension.

"Hold on!" Nemo called to his friends. "We're going to make it!"

Gill fought furiously with the current. It took him back to the days of his youth when he had been trapped in a sunken boat nicknamed "Shock Rope Ship". He had fought with a current similar to this one at the back of the boat in order to get out. If he could survive that one, surely he could survive this one too. Gradually, the suction power from the groupers' mouth died down as they gave up on this resistant prey. They closed their mouths and swam off in search of other fish they could eat. Gill relaxed and the other kids slowly let go of each other.

"Phew," Tad commented. "That was a close one."

"Mmmerl?" Sheldon tried to say. "Ooogan et oh ow."

Pearl at last released his snout and he flexed it for a moment, getting it to work properly again. "I'm sorry," the little octopus apologized, "What did you say, Sheldon?"

"I was telling you that you could let go."

Lash looked very pale-faced and shaken. He turned away as Nemo whipped around to stare at him. "Well, at least your fin gave them something to grab onto," he said, his anger bubbling up and out of him now. "Seeing as you almost _killed_ them!" Lash stared at the sandy sea floor, unable to speak for the moment.

Gill glided up next to Nemo, staring at his nephew with shock and utter disbelief. "_Lash_… _You_…" He shook himself. "We'll save it for later. Right now, we have an emergency situation!" He shot up above the clearing. Many fish saw him from the surrounding reef areas and knew in an instant that something was very wrong. Gill sucked in his breath. "Groupers!" he yelled to the residents of Eco Valley, warning them of approaching danger.

The fish closest to the pickup clearing sliced through the coral and seaweed, relaying the message to the more remote portions of this section. "Groupers!" "Groupers!" "Groupers!" At last, the message reached a certain blue fish hovering just outside of a familiar pink anemone.

"Huh?" Dory said, straining to make out the calls of the faraway messengers. "Groupies?"

Marlin poked his striped head from between the anemone tendrils. "What'd you say, Dory?"

Dory put a yellow-tipped fin up to the side of her head. "The fish are calling to us! They're saying 'Warning! Three groupies are swimming loose in the valley!"

Marlin gave her a confused look. Then he thought for a while and went into a panic. "Dory! Not groupies, groupers! Spotted groupers! Nemo! He's still at school! C'mon, Dory, we have to find Nemo!"

Dory put her head in her fins. "Wait a minute. I'm confused. Didn't we already find him?"

"Just come with me!" Marlin yelled, streaming from his safe anemone to the pickup clearing, pulling a baffled Dory along behind him. When Marlin and Dory reached the clearing, something was already brewing. "Nemo!" Marlin cried. "Nemo, where are you?! We've got to get home!" He stopped short. Maybe staying at home was a bad idea. To avoid the groupers, it would be best if they moved around from place to place instead of staying put and waiting for the doom. "Uh, scratch that. Nemo!"

Little Nemo came paddling up, and Marlin was surprised to find a smile on his orange face. "Hi, Dad! Did you come to help?"

"Help?" Somehow Marlin never seemed to know what was going on. He thought they were in the middle of a reef-wide crisis, and expected everyone to be panicking and rushing madly about. Everyone seemed calm and focused in the clearing. "What's going on here?"

"Help?" Dory asked. "Sure, I'll help. What do you need help with?"

Nemo swam along, leading his father and his adopted aunt a little further into the reef. "Well, we've got a plan for getting the groupers back where they belong. See, one of my friends let them out, and now we have to trap them back in their own little area. So, we built a sturdy barrier out of the sticks and rocks that were lying around. It's hidden in the seaweed just above the area and held up by a seaweed rope attached with a trigger. We need someone to lure the groupers over to their area, so that once they're in, we can pull the trigger and they'll be trapped again."

Marlin frowned. "That sounds dangerous. Whose idea was this anyway?"

"Gill's."

"Of course."

"I offered to bring them, but he wouldn't let me," Nemo explained. "Then I told him to make Lash do it, but Lash was too chicken…"

"Well, good for him," Marlin replied. "You children are much too small and weak to be baiting spotted groupers. You'd be lunch in no time." At last, the three of them reached the area where Gill and the other students were floating around a latch sticking out of the sand.

"Okay, kids," Gill was telling them, "I need you to be on time with that trigger. As soon as the groupers go by, press it!" The little fish nodded and gathered around the latch. Gill turned and began to swim away, but stopped short when he noticed Marlin, Dory, and Nemo in front of him. "Uh…hello. Didn't expect to be seeing you down here so soon."

Marlin crossed his fins. "Nemo told me all about this plan of yours. Now, I just came here to tell you that I don't appreciate you putting all of our children in danger!"

Gill shook his head. "Calm down. I wasn't going to let the kid lead the groupers back here."

"Well, then who's going to do it?" Marlin stopped after this sentence, afraid that someone would tell him to bait the goupers, but it didn't come.

"I am," Gill replied. He swam further up and out of the pickup clearing. "You can stay if you want, and make sure none of the kids get hurt. I'll be back with them on my tail, so be ready to drop the barrier!" Marlin, Dory, and Nemo watched as he drifted farther and farther into the ocean until he at last disappeared from view.

Marlin took a deep gulp of the water around him. "And now…we wait."

Dory glanced around and swam up to greet Nemo's friends. "Hi guys!" she cried. "You're that little guy's friends right? Whirl, Wilson, Lad, and Hash?"

Lash burst out laughing. "You called me Hash!"

Dory brought the tip of her fin up to her mouth. "But…isn't that your name?"

"No," Lash managed to speak between chuckles. "How many times have I told you? It's _Whiphash_!" He cracked up again, pressing his fins to his sides in laughter.

"Whiplash!" Sheldon cried. "Get serious. Mr. Gill will be here any moment with the groupers."

"I…I know," Lash said, wiping his eyes. "But…she called me Hash!"

Just then, Dory jumped out of the way as a black-and-white streak suddenly went whipping by. Three big, red streaks closely followed. The students all slammed on the trigger in the ground and a solid barrier dropped into place, trapping the groupers back where they had come from. A cheer erupted from the group of students as they gave each other high-ones, claw-shakes, and all sorts of celebrative gestures.

Nemo wasn't celebrating just yet. He glanced up into the water around the area where the groupers were trapped. "Where's Uncle Gill?" His forehead creased in worry. Thankfully, he spotted a familiar figure approaching them from the distance.

Gill whooshed back down into the clearing. He was panting and wheezing, but also smiling. "Whew! Now that was a good workout!"

The children all zoomed up and tackled him. "Mr. Gill!" "You're okay!" "You were great!" "You saved Eco Valley!"

Gill glanced up from the crowd and noticed the only one of his students not in the congratulatory group. Lash shrank back at the glare of his uncle. Gill pushed the other students aside. "Excuse me for a moment, kids, but I have to have a…talk…with my nephew."

---

It was two days later, and Lash stared out at his peers, playing dodge ball with a bunch of rounded sponges. This was only his second day of in-school suspension, but already he was sick of it. Yesterday he had watched, painfully, as Mr. Ray took his classmates for a wonderful field trip while he remained in a coral cage next to his uncle.

"I'm here to keep watch on you and make sure you don't find a way out of that cage." Gill had advised him on the first day. "Although I'd be very surprised if you did. We all made sure it was young-Moorish-idol-proof." Lash had just grumbled and turned around in the cage.

No one had been more shocked then Goldie. She had already known that Lash was a troublemaker, but she just couldn't believe that her son would foolishly put so many lives in danger. Her reaction was to give him additional punishment. Now, when Lash came home from "imprisonment" as he now called it, he was forced to do all sorts of chores in the cavern. When a few neighbors dropped by their cavern they were shocked at how spotless it was, especially for a cavern. When asked how she kept it so clean, Goldie just muttered something about forced labor.

Finally, after three more school days, Lash's sentence was up, and Gill let him out of the cage. It was recess during that time, and the other little fish swam up to him.

"Hey, Lash!" Honey Nut called. "You wanna play dodge ball with us?" In this week, Lash had become somewhat of an idol to frequent troublemakers like Honey Nut and Bobo, while Nemo and his friends had completely abandoned him.

It wasn't wholly their fault, though. As soon as Gill returned to Nemo's anemone after the long lecture, Marlin made a big speech of his own about keeping Nemo away from Lash. "I don't want that kid anywhere near my son! He's a bad influence, and I don't want him putting pressure on Nemo!"

But, after all this time stuffed inside a cage, Lash just shook his thin little head. "Nah…I'm too tired." He napped for the rest of the day, in a shaded section of the reef clearing.

---

The next day was a Skimmer day, so after sending Lash off to school, Gill returned to Goldie's cavern for a little visit. Mr. Skimmer had made much progress with the young fish of Eco Valley; now they could count up to 20 and do a few simple addition problems. At first Gill worried about Lash being so far behind in all of his subjects, but Goldie told him otherwise.

"Well, before I came here, he went to school in our reef section for about two years, so he already knows most addition and subtraction. As for English, well, he can write, just not very well." Gill was actually a bit surprised to discover all of these things that Lash could already do. "Yup," Goldie continued, sitting up a few coral pots on a shelf of the cavern. "Lash is pretty bright, he just doesn't apply himself." She sighed. "It's a shame."

So far, at least Goldie was adapting to the environment of Eco Valley. She had a few friends that she regularly corresponded with, and her cavern was one of the cleanest and best designed in Flat Plat Acres.

Gill studied his surroundings and shook his head. It was just like a female Moorish idol to keep her space spotless. There were times that he thought Goldie was just another stereotype, the same as all other fish like her. But then, there were times that he thought there was just something very different about her. After all, she was only half Moorish idol…there was something very special about Goldie, but he couldn't tell exactly what.

Just then, Goldie turned around and smiled. "It's good to have you over here again, Gill. I've missed seeing you when Lash had suspension."

Suddenly, Gill's heart began to pound and he didn't know why. Thankfully, the pounding wore off as a notorious little fish came paddling into the cavern.

"Hi, Mom! Hi, Uncle Gill!" Lash seemed to be in a good mood. He seemed to be in _too good _of a mood.

"So, how was school?" Goldie asked as she picked up a seaweed brush and began to sweep the floor of the cavern.

"It was great!" Lash cried as he laid his supplies on a nearby shelf. Gill and Goldie stared at each other. Either he was lying, or he was really starting to like school. They both hoped the latter was the case.

"So, um…what happened?" Goldie continued to ask.

Lash turned around and grinned at them. "My math teacher had a nervous breakdown!"

Suddenly Gill remembered Skimmer and his terrible fear of young Moorish idols. "Oh no!" he cried. "Skimmer! Lash, you better not have done anything to him!" He began to swim out of the cavern entrance. "And if you have…" he continued, calling back to Lash. "Then you'll get another week in suspension just like last time! You hear me?!"

Lash smiled and shrugged. "I didn't _have _to do anything. He flipped out just at the sight of me." He choked as he held back laughter.

"Whiplash," his mother scolded him. "It's not nice to laugh at people with…problems."

Lash couldn't hold back the wide grin that was now plastered on his face. "Yeah, but…but it was so funny! He thought I was some kind of monster or something!"

Goldie quickly slapped Lash's long snout. "Well maybe you are, so just hush!" Lash rubbed his snout and swam away to his room, looking a bit hurt.

---

Gill zoomed through the reef, and straight down into the pickup clearing where he could already see the long brown skate with his head half-buried in the sand.

"They're…they're back! They've…come to get their revenge on me! Please! Please don't let them kill me! I don't want to die!"

"Mr. Skimmer," Gill gently said to him.

"Huh?" the frantic skate teacher poked his head out of the sand again. "G-Gill! Thank God! Did you see them? The others came back again! They're alive!"

Gill swam closer and looked Mr. Skimmer straight in the eyes. "Calm down." Instantly, the skate's brown body relaxed, as if Gill was holding him in a trance and he had to obey his orders. "Now, listen to me. All the others, except for one, are dead. That one is not out to get you. She would never, ever harm. The one you saw today was that one's son. He does not know about you or the war or anything else related to that family." Mr. Skimmer flinched a bit when Gill said "the war", but other than that, he seemed to be listening. "If Lash does _anything _to hurt you, tell me immediately. I'll show him who's boss. Okay?"

Slowly, Mr. Skimmer nodded, and Gill swam away, hoping that would be the last time he'd have to calm the obsessive skate.

---

After this little incident, the days flew smoothly past with little or no problems. Goldie and Gill made sure Lash didn't cause any more trouble with Mr. Skimmer or Mr. Ray, although he seemed to have calmed down now and gotten more used to this school system. Aside from the occasional frolic through Mr. Johannsen's yard, Lash seemed to have become a quiet, obedient kid.

The only thing Gill worried about was Friday. Normally, he'd be teaching all day Wednesdays and Fridays, but this Friday was a special day. Every now and then the children had "extra classes" on Friday, sometimes music and sometimes art. This Friday was art, and Gill was worried about how Lash would behave around art supplies. In his nightmares he imagined his little nephew with Honey Nut and Bobo, smearing paint and glue all over everything.

When the day finally arrived, and when the angelfish teacher swooped down with her box of art supplies, Gill just held his breath and hoped for the best. "Okay, class," the angelfish explained after everyone had an easel and some paper set up in front of them. "Today's assignment is abstract painting, meaning you have the remaining class time to paint whatever you wish. Make it appropriate, as at the end of the time, you will be sharing your painting with the class. Okay, you may begin."

Gill watched in horror as Lash jetted over to the box holding the paints and other supplies, but surprisingly, he didn't topple it over. He picked up a few brushes and a tube of blue paint. Thankfully, when Lash acted calm and obedient, so did his two closest followers, Bobo and Honey Nut. Gill sighed with relief and went back to grading and organizing papers in peace while the little fish painted.

Nemo painted a portrait of his family- him, his father, Dory, and Gill. He glanced over at what his friends were doing. "What're you painting, Pearl?" he asked his octopus friend.

Pearl gripped the paintbrush between two tentacles. "It's supposed to be us using octopus' ink for our lessons, but…I can't paint all that well."

"No, it's pretty good," Nemo told her.

"I'm painting a sunken ship!" Sheldon said, showing Nemo his paper.

"Aw, that was my idea, too," Tad complained, showing Sheldon his painting. At least their sunken ships looked totally different.

At last, Nemo couldn't help himself and glanced over at what Lash was painting. He gasped. The little Moorish idol had constructed a beautiful sea, using different shades of blue. He was putting the finishing details on a figure in the corner that looked very much like…him. "Wow…" Nemo commented. "That's an awesome painting, Lash. Is that you in the corner?"

Lash didn't even acknowledge Nemo's presence. He stared at the paper, his face screwed in a look of pain. His black fin trembled as he brought it up to the top of the paper. He whipped the bunch across the top, creating a white streak, arching down into the depth of the sea. Lash floated a little backwards to get a look at his work. He turned his face and threw his brush to the sea floor.

"Wh-Whiplash?" Nemo spoke up. "Um…is something the matter?" Lash didn't answer; he just turned away from his painting and refused to speak for the rest of the time they had to paint.

At last, the angelfish teacher announced that time was up and everyone was to form a circle and present their painting as they went around the circle. "This is my family," Nemo said when it was his turn. "Some fish might argue that Aunt Dory and Uncle Gill aren't really family, but I'll always consider them part of my family."

"Mine shows how useful we octopi are to the world," Pearl explained.

"Sunken ships," Tad said, showing his painting. "Two of 'em," Sheldon added, displaying his. "They sunk together!"

Now it was Lash's turn. He whipped out his painting and showed it to the rest of the class. "Woowwww," the other little fish marveled.

"That's quite a beautiful painting, Whiplash," the angelfish teacher commented. "You're very artistic." Lash just stared at the sea floor, without saying a word.

At this moment, Gill looked up from his stack of papers. He had expected to hear Lash's little voice at that moment, bragging about his artistic abilities, but nothing like that came. The little Moorish idol actually looked a little…depressed.

"So…could you tell us what it's about?" the angelfish asked. "That's you in the corner, is it not?"

Lash's body began to shake. "It's a bad painting."

The angelfish teacher shook her head. "No, it's not. It's a very good painting. Could you tell us more about it?"

Lash shook his head again. "No. It's a bad painting." His trembling fins suddenly ripped the piece of artwork in half. The two pieces floated down to the sandy ground. "I don't want anyone to see it." All of the students, the angelfish, and Gill stared in shock.

"Well," the angelfish began recovering and trying to keep the class going. "If you didn't want to show anyone, you could have just told me, and…"

Lash shook his head. "Just…just let it go."

The angelfish shrugged. "Okay…who's next?"

From his distant watching spot, Gill stared at his little nephew with new light. He watched as Lash withdrew from the rest of the group and stared away, troubled by something inside of him. Perhaps his nephew was more than just a rude, troublemaking brat. Perhaps there was something Lash was hiding from everyone else, burying it deep inside of him where he thought no one would ever find it, covering it with his attitude and bad behavior. But perhaps…just perhaps…


	4. Forbidden Love

(Slaps a big "PG" sign over this story). Yes, I had to up the rating for this chapter. You'll definitely know why later…Anyway, this is a very controversial chapter. Yes…brother/sister love. As in romantic love. Yes, it's "disgusting and wrong", but I always had this in mind before I started writing this story. If you can't deal with it, then don't read this chapter. I don't think it's that unusual for Goldie and Gill, since they haven't known each other, but still, I don't want angry people saying, "What the bleeeeep ? They're brother and sister! You are sick and wrong!!! I hope you die and do the world some good." So, if you're not going to be understanding about it, I want you to leave. Now.

On the plus side, I'm actually surprised to get a few reviewers! Thank you guys so much! Hardly anyone comes to this section anymore… (sighs)

---

Chapter 4: Forbidden Love

Later that same day, Gill went to tell Goldie what Lash had done at school that day. "Hmm," she said. "No wonder he came home from school so quiet. Normally, he's always talking about this and that…"

"Do you know what upset him?" Gill asked.

Goldie took a deep breath. "Most likely, he got thinking too much about the past, and he just got upset about it all over again. He does that sometimes. There's really nothing I can do about it…"

"The past?" Gill questioned.

"Yes," Goldie replied. "Remember I told you that my husband, Whirlwind left us a while ago, so we had to go searching for a new place to stay." Gill remained stony silent. Now he thought he knew what was wrong with Lash. Goldie lowered her voice to a whisper in case he was listening. "Well, Lash was very close to his father. We named him based on his father's name- Whirlwind, Whiplash. He remembers when his father left now and then and it upsets him."

It made Gill angry thinking about this abandoning. There were some fish like Marlin, who were just trying to be the best father they could be, while there were other fish like Whirlwind who didn't care about their children at all. "Well, if I were him, I wouldn't have left if the world depended on it."

Goldie stared at Gill for a long moment. She blinked a bit and tried to calm the sudden strange feeling that had risen in her chest. "You…you want to stay for a while?" she said, without even really thinking about it.

Now, Gill was struck dumb. "Um…well…I really have to get going…I uh, have a…have a teacher's meeting to go to." He swam a little bit towards the entrance to the cave. "But…um…maybe tomorrow. Would that…uh, would that be good for you?"

Goldie laughed nervously. "Of course. You know I'm home every day."

"Oh, right," Gill replied. "Well, see you tomorrow!" He zipped away from Flat Plat Acres, his heart pounding. What's wrong with me? He wondered. I can't think straight, I'm tripping over my words… All he could think about was Goldie and how lovely she had looked at that moment. Gill shook himself. I've got to stop thinking like that, he told himself. Concentrate on the meeting! C'mon, concentrate! But already he was getting excited about seeing Goldie tomorrow.

Meanwhile, in her cavern, Goldie swam away toward her soft sand bed. Oohhhh, why does he do that? she said to herself. Why does he have to make me feel so…happy? Goldie put her fins to her cheeks and felt them burning as she blushed. Calm down, she told herself. I can't think that way about him. He's my brother; it's not right. But she couldn't stop her next thought, as much as she tried to block it out of her head. "Well, my wimpy little brother from my childhood sure had grown into quite a handsome guy!"

---

The next night, Gill was over Goldie and Lash's cavern again. The three of them were floating around the main interior, playing a three-player game similar to checkers with a bunch of shells.

Unfortunately, Lash was back to his loud, obnoxious self. "Woo-hoo!" he bragged. "I won again! Ha ha ha!" What he didn't realize was that the only reason he had won was because Goldie and Gill had let him win.

"Okay," Goldie announced. "It's getting late. I think you ought to get ready for bed, Lash."

"Awww," he complained. "C'mon. How come I have to go to bed, but you get to stay up?"

"Because you're a child, and children need more sleep."

Lash pouted. "I hate being a child." He turned around and headed for his room as Goldie packed up the shells. "Can I bring that game to school sometime and play it with my friends? It was really fun!"

"Sure, honey," Goldie replied. "I'll put it by the entrance."

"Just not during class time!" Gill called. "I know how you are!"

"Darn," Lash said from his room. "I was going to play it during class and then argue that you said it was okay!"

Gill chuckled. "Well, he sure can think up a lot of creative ways of getting by the rules."

Goldie looked over at Gill and felt the fire in her cheeks again. She tried to calm her feelings, and at last said, "Well, why don't you join me in the kitchen."

The two Moorish idols (well, actually one and a half Moorish idols) swam together into another section of the cavern. Goldie's cavern was much bigger than Gill's, with several other little chambers, but this was necessary since she had someone else living with her. They rested on a couple of clamshells next to each other.

Goldie laughed, nervously. Why did she always start giggling like this when she was around Gill? She hoped he didn't think she was just a giggly bubblehead. Then she wondered why it mattered to her what her brother thought of her. "Well," she began. "I appreciate you paying for this cavern for us."

"I…I only felt it necessary. Since you're my family, and I didn't have to pay for my cavern." Relax, Gill told himself. She'll never like you if she thinks you're a stuttering nervous wreck.

"So…" Goldie began. "I though we could talk for a while. This…this all happened so fast, and we don't really know that much about each other, so I figured we'd use this time to get to know each other better." She started by saying a few things about herself and what she liked to do.

Gill chimed in, telling her that he liked to do some of the same things. After a while, they got involved in a real conversation, both of them feeling a lot more relaxed, hiding their uneasy feelings of attraction. Wow, Goldie thought. I guess we really do have a lot in common.

At last, Gill looked back at the shell clock on a shelf behind them. "Well, I need to be going," he said. "I've got school tomorrow." Then, he chuckled a bit. "I mean I've got to _teach_ tomorrow."

"Yeah, I know what you meant," Goldie said with a smile. "It was nice having you. Drop by anytime, you're always welcome!"

Gill was suddenly struck with a weird urge. Well, Goldie was his sister, it was okay if he just gave her a little nudge before he left…right? He slowly moved closer and tapped the side of Goldie's snout with his own.

She smiled and her white cheeks seemed to glow pink. "Um…well, see you tomorrow, or whenever you get chance."

"See you tomorrow," Gill echoed. There had been nothing wrong with that, it was just a little nudge, he reminded himself, the Moorish idol equivalent of a hug. There had been nothing wrong with it, but Gill still wished he hadn't done it, not because he felt it was wrong, but because he now had an even stronger urge to do it again. He grasped control over this urge and swam away towards his own cavern.

Goldie suddenly exploded in joyful laughter. He just nudged me!!! Then she subdued herself again. But that doesn't matter, brothers and sisters nudge each other, we're allowed to. Now Goldie had an urge in herself to calm, since when Gill nudged her, she'd gotten a similar urge to nudge him back.

Goldie frowned and crossed her fins. I need to stop with this nonsense, she told herself. What if Whirlwind came back someday? I need to stop acting like an immature little girl! Gill is my brother, I can't be…falling in love with him…Goldie drifted off to sleep, right there in the kitchen, thinking happy thoughts about the next time she would get to see him.

---

The next day, Gill was hovering behind his teacher's desk, staring at the open ocean, trying to sort out his feelings. He definitely knew now that he had feelings for Goldie, but just what were those feelings? They were warm, tender feelings, but what exactly did they mean? It's not right for me to be attracted to her, he thought. I can't be…but, then what am I?

"Mr. Gill!" a little voice called in the distance. Although the little purple fish, Violet Nectar was right next to his desk, she sounded very far away and muffled. "Mr. Gill, aren't you going to check my sentences?"

Then there were these strange urges he got every now and then, wanting to nudge Goldie, or even worse, to kiss her. He had to get rid of these feelings somehow. How could he do that? He had tried his hardest not to think about Goldie, but he just couldn't help it, and whenever he thought about her, he couldn't help thinking about how beautiful she was.

"Mr. Gill!!!"

He couldn't ask Goldie and Lash to leave, they'd just gotten here! But maybe it was best that they did, to prevent a lot of controversy and grief. Yes, it would probably be better that way…No! his inner mind suddenly yelled. They shouldn't have to move and start a whole new life again just because he couldn't control himself. That's it, Gill decided, I won't think about Goldie again. But, it was too late; he'd already started thinking about her.

"_Mr. Gill!!!_"

Gill's inner thinking world was shattered as little Violet Nectar screamed at the top of her lungs. "Uh…I'm sorry, Violet Nectar. I'll correct those sentences for you." The little purple fish frowned and panted as he checked her paper and handed it back to her. His mind just wasn't on teaching today.

"Something's wrong with Uncle Gill," Nemo told his friends. "I know sometimes he goes into trances, but never during class time."

Tad shrugged. "Well, maybe he just can't concentrate today. That happens to me a lot."

"Hey!" Pearl suddenly cried over to a group of fish nearby. "Put that game away! You know you're not supposed to be playing during class!"

Lash, Honey Nut, and Bobo all looked back at her. "Yeah, but while Uncle Gill was spacing out, we figured, why not?" Lash told her.

"Lash!" Finally Gill had noticed their little game group in the corner. "What did I tell you about that game?!"

"Sorry, Uncle Gill," Lash called, scooping up the shell pieces, "But I get bored when you go all zombie on us."

Gill sighed. He could tell this was going to be one very long day.

---

After school, it was Gill's turn to bring Nemo home, and he was slightly grateful for the duty. Right now he was still a bit apprehensive about his situation with Goldie and he wanted to try to avoid her for the moment. "So, you ready to go, Shark Bait?" he called over to the little orange clownfish.

Nemo grabbed his last stripped seaweed "quill" and swam over to him. "Yup." The two of them began to swim back in the direction of Nemo's anemone home. "Hey, Gill," the little clownfish spoke up, "Are you okay? You've been acting kind of strange lately."

"Strange?" Gill asked. "Strange how? In what way?"

"Well…you've never spaced out like that before during class…"

"I'm real sorry about that," Gill immediately began to apologize. "I was just…thinking too much. I won't do that again, I…" he stopped short. He was about to say, "I promise", but remembered how much he prided himself on never breaking his promises. He couldn't be sure that he wouldn't think about…_her_ again. No! Just the mention of Goldie brought up a permanent mental picture of her in his mind. "Come back anytime…you're always welcome…" "Aaaugh!" Gill cried, shaking his head, trying to block out the sights and sounds of the female half-Moorish idol.

"And you do that a lot," Nemo added.

"I've just got a lot on my mind," Gill told him.

Nemo frowned. "Yeah. It seems like you've always got a lot to do, huh?"

Gill glanced over at him and noticed how disappointed he looked. "Shark Bait? Something the matter?"

Nemo glanced over at his adopted uncle. "I just…well…you never come to visit anymore…" Suddenly, Gill realized that he _hadn't _been to visit Nemo and his family in over two weeks. "I mean, are you really _that_ busy? Do you not have time for us anymore? Or…do you just not like us anymore?"

Gill slowly placed a fin on top of Nemo's back. "I…I'm sorry, Nemo. I've been…obsessing over things. I need to stop this and get back to normal. I promise I'll come visit you again. Maybe this weekend, okay?"

Nemo looked back up and managed a small smile. "Okay." By this time, they had reached the anemone, hovering outside the creature's waving tentacles.

Marlin poked his head out from the inside. "Hi, Nemo! How was school?"

"Pretty good," Nemo replied. He swam over and dropped his school supplies inside the anemone and then swam back out where they all had congregated. "Uncle Gill spaced out during class."

"Wow," Dory commented. "Gee, you're getting to be like me! Forgetting where you are…"

"C'mon," Gill tried to get out of this discussion. "Let's not make a big deal out of it."

"And he keeps shaking his head, saying he's thinking too much…and starts smiling and laughing for no reason…" Marlin began smiling as Nemo told him all about the unusual things Gill had been doing lately. "I think there's something wrong with him," Nemo decided. "Maybe he should go to a doctor or something."

Marlin shook his head and smiled, reminiscing about happy times passed. "Oh, no. Can't say I blame him. I was the same way with Coral."

Gill froze and stared at Marlin with shock and denial. It couldn't be; it just wasn't possible. He couldn't be…in love…with Goldie? Suddenly, his heart began pounding again, and his body seemed to go weak as the image of that beautiful half-Moorish idol filled his mind.

A wide grin spread across Dory's face. She gasped. "Uncle Roadkill's in _love_! So who's the lucky girl?"

The image of Goldie in Gill's brain was getting closer and closer. He wanted to reach out and touch her, but she was just a figment of his imagination. His body was practically trembling in excitement.

"So? Huh? Huh? Who is it?" Dory pressed on, moving a little closer.

"L-Leave me alone!" Gill cried. He turned around and swam off into the reef.

"Aw," Dory said in disappointment. "I didn't find out who it was! Oh well, I'd probably just forget anyway."

Marlin chuckled to himself. "Ah, love. Ain't it grand?"

---

The next morning, Gill was swimming about Eco Valley as he usually did whenever he wasn't teaching for that day. However, today was different. Today he had a mission. Yesterday he had thought he'd just forget about Goldie and avoid her for the rest of his life, but now he knew what a bad idea that was. If he just pushed away his feelings for enough time, he'd probably go mad, seeing visions of his sister and calling out to her, touching her when she really wasn't there. He still didn't know what he was going to do about his situation, but as of now he had only one objective- to see Goldie again!

Gill remembered that two days ago at their cavern, he had said that he'd see her "tomorrow". Tomorrow had been yesterday, and he hadn't seen her at all. In order to make an effective apology, Gill figured he should bring some sort of gift, and what did female fish like better than a pretty bouquet of decorative seaweed? He was in the process of gathering the fanciest and most colorful stalks of seaweed he could find, when a familiar blue face suddenly popped out from in between these stalks.

"Aawwww, look. Uncle Roadkill gathering seaweed flowers for his sweetie…"

"Dory!" Gill was so surprised he nearly dropped the half-finished bouquet. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, just coming to bother you," she replied. "You still haven't told me who you're in love with yet."

"I don't want to," Gill told her. "You'd probably forget who it is and tell everyone I'm in love with the wrong person."

Dory frowned. "Yeah, I probably would, but please tell me! I love a good romance!"

At last Gill decided that he had enough seaweed and just swam away as Dory was going on and on about finding a page from a romance novel. He had better things to do than float around and be badgered by a forgetful regal tang.

"Hey," Dory said when she opened her eyes again. "Someone was just here a little while ago…where'd he go? Who was it?" She shrugged. "Oh well, I've got to get going to that meeting before I forget!" She zoomed off into the open ocean.

---

Gill arrived at Goldie's cavern holding the seaweed bouquet and feeling a little nervous. It wasn't like him to feel nervous about talking to someone, but this was _Goldie_, the one fish that he thought he wouldn't be able to handle rejection from. "Um…hello?" he called into the depths. "Anyone home?"

At last, Goldie swam up to the mouth of the cavern. "Gill!" she cried. "I'm sorry, I wasn't expecting you, but…come on in!" Goldie had been upset last night when Gill hadn't come to visit at all. He must only think of me as his sister, she thought, but that's silly because he _has _to only think of me as a sister. It's wrong for a brother and a sister to…to be in love with each other. But now Goldie was sure that was what it was- love.

She had been in love before, with Whirlwind, but that love hadn't lasted for long after they were married. She remembered when last night she had been crying. Lash kept asking her what was wrong, but she couldn't find any way of telling him. That was right, she had reminded herself. Even if Gill wasn't her brother and he had feelings for her too, it wouldn't be right to introduce a new fish into Lash's life so soon. So Goldie too had mixed feelings when she invited her brother to enter her cavern. At least Lash was still at school, so perhaps they could have a serious talk with each other…

"I…uh, got these for you on my way here," Gill spoke up, holding out the fancy seaweed bouquet. "…I though you'd like them. Not that I'm trying to make up for not coming yesterday. I'm really sorry about that…"

"Oh…it's okay," Goldie quickly replied, scooping up the bouquet. "Wow, these are beautiful. Did you buy them?"

"Well, no," Gill admitted. "I sort of put them together from the seaweed that grows around here…"

"Well I never knew we had such beautiful local seaweed." Goldie placed the bundle in the center of one of the cavern's natural shelves. She turned back and stared at her brother for a long moment, feeling very happy that he was here, but also very confused and worried. "…Gill?" she finally spoke up. "I…I think we need to talk. Come into my room for a minute."

Goldie's room was further into the cavern and separated from the rest by a rock barrier. She swam through the hole in the middle and Gill followed her. Her room had a few shelves lined with fishy jewelry and beauty products, along with a sand bed covered with a woven seaweed sheet, like all the caverns at Flat Plat Acres. Goldie glided up beside the bed and Gill slipped beside her.

"So…what did you need to talk about?"

Goldie took a deep breath. She wrung the tips of her fins together, like a human would with their hands. "Um…well…you may think this is kind of stupid and immature of me, but…"

Gill smiled at her. "No. I already know I won't. I can't possibly think that anything is stupid and immature about you."

Goldie smiled back. "Well, thanks, but…" She had to find the will and the strength to try to explain what was going on inside her. How could she put into words all that she was feeling? She had to try somehow… "I think it's very important that we be honest with each other. And these are my honest feelings…"

At last, Goldie looked up and straight at Gill, although it buzzed inside of her just to look at him, making it difficult to speak, she knew she had to do this. "Not long after I met you, I began having these strange feelings…" At first, Goldie couldn't believe what she was saying. How could she tell all of this to him? But it was too late, and she couldn't turn back now.

"I…didn't know what it was at first. That I was happy every time I saw you, and I was thinking about you all the time…and then I figured it out…that…that I was in love with you." Goldie bit her lips. Surely, he thought she was crazy now. She almost began to cry, just imagining it. This hadn't been as easy as confessing her feelings to Whirlwind…if he had rejected her, she would've just gone on with her life, but now…

"But…it's not right," she at last continued. "You're my brother, I shouldn't be having these kinds of feelings for you, but…I just…"

At that point, Gill cut her off with a nudge, just like the other night. "…I know," he slowly admitted. "I…love you too."

Goldie looked up, and straight at him again, smiling, relieved and fully pleased. He smiled back. Now, she thought, is the perfect time. She swam closer and nuzzled her shorter snout up against his. This time Gill knew he wouldn't have to anguish over chained-up emotions. He gave Goldie another nudge. Everything was now at ease. She had the same feelings for him as he had for her, and now it didn't matter what relationship they had to each other.

The two fish hovered in the cavern room for a few minutes, nuzzling each other, until at last, they opened their mouths, and locked lips in a slow, romantic kiss.

"Sorry if I'm not a very good kisser," Gill said when they released for a moment. "I've never done that before."

Goldie smiled. "Yes you are. Better than Whirlwind." And so she kissed him again.

Another couple of minutes later, while they were still kissing, a familiar little voice rang through the cavern walls. "Hello! I'm home!"

Neither Goldie nor Gill noticed, both too caught up in their loving. They flopped sideways onto Goldie's sand bed, still kissing and nuzzling.

"Mom!" Lash called, swimming through the cavern, searching for his mother. "Mom!" He looked in the kitchen, the main room, and the hallway. Finally, he decided to peek in her room to see if she was in there. His eyes went wide, his jaw dropped open, and he dropped all of his school supplies. "…Mom?"

At last, Goldie and Gill looked up from the bed and noticed Lash, hovering outside the hole it shock. "Lash…dear…it's okay…" Goldie tried to explain, but it was no use.

Lash turned his tail and zoomed away as fast as he could go.

"Lash!" Goldie cried, getting up and pushing Gill off of her. "Oh no…" she said to herself. "How are we ever going to explain _this _to him?"


	5. Runaway Fish!

Yup, we all knew it was inevitable…but that was because I said it would happen. I did make one mistake in this chapter. Marlin reads Lash's note, but Marlin really can't read… but who else would have read it? Maybe they've been giving him reading lessons… Oh, well. I didn't realize it until now, and it's a little too late to change the entire thing. Enjoy it anyways!

Since this fic will most likely be discontinued, because I'm no longer obsessed with Finding Nemo, I want to thank everyone who read this fic and especially to all who reviewed:

---

Chapter 5: Runaway Fish!

It had taken a long time, but her efforts seemed basically useless. Goldie had tried to explain to Lash what had been going on without actually having "the talk" yet. He was still only the equivalent of seven years old, and much too young to get the full explanation yet. Lash just seemed confused and disgusted. He ignored his mother and his uncle for the next two days, as much as they tried to convince him otherwise.

At least after they had confessed each other's feelings, Gill wasn't spacing out in class anymore. Lash was still ignoring him, even during class, which was beginning to concern him. He and Goldie had decided it was okay for them to date, and they had made a date that afternoon to go out to a show.

---

It was Saturday already, and Goldie was wearing a string of pearls around her back for her date with Gill. A few minutes later, he arrived, holding another bouquet of fancy seaweed pieces, although this time using a few different kinds. Goldie excitedly swam up to him. "Okay, I'm all ready to go!"

"Wait a minute, what about your son?" Gill reminded her.

Goldie stopped short at the entrance to the cavern. "Oh, yeah. Gee, I forgot about Lash, he's been so quiet lately…" Being in love with somebody again was making Goldie feel much younger than she actually was, and she was beginning to forget that she even had a son. She swam back into the cavern, down the hall and into the hole leading to Lash's section. "Lash, honey? Are you all packed?"

Lash just grunted in agreement. He drifted out of the section, not even looking up at his mother.

Goldie looked around and noticed that he had nothing with him. "You don't need to bring anything? You're going to be staying with the clownfish for the whole night, so are you sure you don't need anything?"

Lash shook his head, sadly and just swam out of the cavern, turning around to face out into the ocean.

"Well, I guess we're ready," Goldie said, swimming out to join them. "Let's get going to the clownfish's."

Gill led his family through the reef and across fish streams towards Nemo's anemone. He was a bit apprehensive, since he hadn't even told Marlin of their plan to drop Lash off. He didn't think it would be a problem, but Marlin already knew what a troublemaker Lash could be, and he might be reluctant to watch him for the entire night. At last, the two and a half Moorish idols arrived outside the pink anemone.

Little Nemo whooshed out to meet them. "Hi Uncle Gill! Hi Lash! Have you guys come for a visit?"

"Well, not today." Gill hated to disappoint his little clownfish "nephew", but he should have realized that Nemo would still be looking for a visit. "How about Monday after school?"

"Oh," Nemo sounded a bit disappointed, but tried to look happy. "Yeah, okay!"

"Where's your father?" Gill asked.

"I'll go get him," Nemo said, diving back into the waving anemone.

A few minutes later, Marlin poked out of the anemone in almost the same place that Nemo had been. He smiled as he laid eyes on them. "Well, hello Gill, Lash, and…"

"Goldie," Goldie introduced herself. "You're Marlin?"

Marlin grinned and nodded. "Pleased to meet you, Goldie. So…what is the purpose of this sudden visit?"

"Well…" Gil began. "Actually, Goldie and I are going to the Full Moon Theater tonight and we need someone to watch Lash…I figured that maybe you and Dory could take care of him for the night. We'll be back tomorrow morning to pick him up."

"Well, that's fine by me," Marlin agreed. "Dory isn't here now; she went to a meeting, but she should be back before the end of the day. I think I can handle the little guy by myself until then."

Lash was staring off into the deep blue ocean. He didn't say anything, or even make any annoyed faces when Marlin called him a "little guy". He finally dragged himself over beside the anemone and stared down into the murky depths.

"We'll have fun," Marlin tried to get his attention. "You've got Nemo to play with, and when Dory gets back, we'll play a game, okay? …Lash? Hey, Lash…?" The little Moorish idol just looked away, too hurt and confused to talk to anybody. "Is something wrong with him?" Marlin asked.

"He's been like that for a couple of days," Goldie explained, although she was too embarrassed to explain what happened. "Well, at least you know he'll be nice and quiet for you."

Marlin seemed a bit relieved and worried at the same time. He swam up beside Lash as Gill and Goldie began to swim away. "Well, have fun!" he called, waving with one of his orange fins. "Invite me to the wedding!"

Gill and Goldie swam off together, waving to Marlin. When they had turned a corner and were far enough away from the anemone, Goldie glanced suspiciously at Gill. "Wedding?"

"He's just teasing us," Gill assured her.

---

"So," Marlin turned to look at the little Moorish idol beside him. "What do you say we find a spot where we can all be together for the rest of the night? Nemo!"

Nemo came paddling out of his anemone home, holding a pad of waterproof paper and a few seaweed quills dipped in octopi ink. "What is it, Dad? I have to do my homework."

"Well, we're all going to move outside the anemone for the rest of the day," Marlin told his son. "Lash is going to be sleeping over tonight."

"Oh, really?" Nemo was surprised and a bit frustrated. How come no one ever told him what was going on? He wasn't too keen on Lash sleeping over either. It had been established a long time ago that Lash was a troublemaker and a bully. As much as Nemo tried to be friendly and helpful, Lash always ignored him and just pushed him away. It seemed like today would be no different. "Are you okay, Lash?" Nemo asked. "Did something happen? You look kind of sad."

The young Moorish idol just ignored him, turning his snout away, huffily.

"Aren't you going to talk to me?" Nemo urged again, but he still got no response. "Well, at least having you ignore me is better than having you boss me around."

"Nemo," Marlin scolded. "Try to be nice to him. He is our visitor, after all."

"He won't talk to me," Nemo said. "I think he should be a little nicer to me. It's rude to just ignore someone who's talking to you."

"Please, Nemo," Marlin replied. "Just try not to disturb him. I think he needs a little time to…think things over."

At this sentence, Lash swam over to a group of lumpy, bluish coral and just stared at it for a few minutes.

Marlin sighed as a fish he knew came gliding up. "Hey, there, Hutch! How've you been? Haven't talked to you in a while. Are you going to the parent meeting on Tuesday?" Hutch was the father of Bandit, one of the students at Nemo's school. So, Marlin and Hutch got involved in a conversation, hovering just outside the anemone, chatting as parents do when they haven't seen each other for a while.

Nemo sighed. He swam over and grabbed his pad of paper and his quills, so he could do his homework. He picked up a quill, and poised it on top of the paper, ready to write his name at the top, when a familiar, unwelcome voice interrupted him.

"Hey, Nemo?" Lash finally spoke up. "Can I borrow a seaweed stick and some paper?"

Nemo was pretty shocked. He didn't think Lash would speak to him for the rest of the night, and if he ever did say anything, he didn't think it would be to ask for some paper and a seaweed stick. "Well…sure, Lash."

The young Moorish idol grabbed a seaweed stick and a few pieces of paper and began to write.

Nemo didn't think this would work, but Lash had surprised him before. Perhaps he was making a turnaround and becoming a kind, obedient fish. Nemo smiled. Maybe he was influencing him, getting him to behave by setting a good example for him. "Do you want some help with your homework?" Nemo asked. It was worth a try. "I know it's kind of hard…I have trouble spelling too."

Lash wasn't responding; he had become a stony silent statue again, scribbling on his paper. At last, he just ripped one piece of paper in half as his emotions surged through his body. He was disappointed…dejected…and angry. There was only one thing left to do. There was only one thing he could do.

"Don't get that frustrated," Nemo told him. "You'll get it, eventually. You sure you don't need some help?"

Lash shook his head, almost laughing at the goody-goody little clownfish. He still thought he was doing homework! No, there was no way Lash could do homework now. There was no reason to do homework. Homework was what you did when you had nothing left to do, and Lash had plenty left to do. He picked up Nemo's seaweed stick again and began to write in silence. Maybe if he was quiet enough and fooled Nemo into thinking that he was just concentrating very hard on his homework…

Nemo himself was concentrating very hard on his homework. He wanted to have everything perfect, so that on Wednesday, he could be one of the few students with everything right and impress the others. He flexed his left fin around the seaweed stick and carefully wrote out in dripping letters, each of the colors of the rainbow- red, that was an easy one, orange…it took a while for Nemo to remember all the letters in "orange", especially since it had a silent E. Yellow…that one was difficult too. Often times, he missed the double L in the center, but after a few tries, he thought he had spelled it right. Green…and then Blue. Nemo always had trouble spelling blue. Was it UE or EU? He stared down at his paper.

"Hey, Lash, do you think blue is spelled B-L-U-E or B-L-E-U?" There was no answer from the Moorish idol, as usual, so Nemi just moved on to the next word- purple, but that wasn't any easier. At last, Nemo decided to put his homework aside for the moment. Maybe he would be able to think better after a little break.

"Lash?" he called. "Can I have that seaweed stick back now?" There was no response. "Lash?" Nemo glanced around the area, frantically searching for something that resembled a young Moorish idol. "Lash, where are you?" He put his fins up on his sides, growing frustrated. "Stop hiding on me! That's not nice! I need that seaweed stick back!" Still, Nemo could hear nothing but the fluctuating water and his father still chatting with Hutch.

"Oh, all right, all right," Nemo finally decided. "_Whiplash_, get back out here!" He expected to see Lash any moment, zooming out of a patch of coral, holding his seaweed stick and laughing at him, but no such rude actions came.

Finally, Nemo noticed his seaweed stick, almost out of ink, sitting on one of the blue coral pieces Lash had been floating next to minutes before. Next to the stick, Nemo saw the piece of paper Lash had been writing on, but it didn't look at all like homework. It was some kind of note, but Nemo couldn't make out what it said, as much as he squinted at it, and tried to pronounce the words.

"I'm back," Marlin announced, gliding into their section outside of the anemone. "Sorry, I took so long. I just had to talk to Hutch. He had some good ideas at the last meeting I went to…" The clownfish parent glanced around the clearing. "Hey, where's Lash?"

"I don't know," Nemo bluntly answered, still looking at the note, trying to decipher what looked like letter code.

Marlin instantly sprang into panic mode. "What do you mean you don't know?! He was just here a minute ago! Wasn't he back here with you?!"

"Yeah," Nemo answered. "I was doing my homework. I asked him several times if he needed help, but he didn't answer. When I looked back up again, he was gone. He wrote this note."

Marlin ripped the note from Nemo's grasp. "I run a way. I no cum bac. U no ned me no mor." Marlin stared at the paper in disbelief. "I run away? I no come back? You no need me no more??? He…he ran away?! He ran away!!!" He threw the paper to the sea bottom and grabbed his son's full fin. "C'mon, Nemo, we've got to find him before Gill and Goldie get back! Do you know where he might have gone?"

Nemo shrugged his little shoulders. "No. I don't know Lash that well. I have no idea where he could be."

Marlin took a deep breath and tried to relax. "Okay. We'll search the surrounding area and see if we can find him. He couldn't have gone that far…" The two clownfish swam around the area together searching every nook and cranny, bump, ridge, platform, and hole in the reef, periodically calling his name. Fish that swam by were sure to hear either Nemo's little voice, or Marlin's worried tone calling, "Lash! Lash, where are you? Come out, Lash! Are you down there, Lash?"

"Ollie ollie oxen free!" Nemo called. "Hey, what does that mean, anyway? Dad, what does…?"

"Not now, Nemo," Marlin brushed away the question partly because he was so frantic and afraid and partly because he didn't know. "I have to find Lash! I was supposed to be watching him…I shouldn't have let him out of my sight…" he put his head in his fins and sighed. "This is all my fault." He sucked in a deep gulp of water. "LASH! IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW OR YOU'LL BE IN BIG TROUBLE WHEN YOUR UNCLE GETS BACK!!!"

There was no response. No annoying little voice yelled back at him, no striped body came barreling up to them; dead water answered Marlin desperate call.

At last, the two clownfish began to swim back towards their anemone. "Well, when night falls, he'll probably come right back here, looking for some food or somewhere to sleep," Marlin said, partly to himself. "…At least I hope."

---

Meanwhile, in another part of Eco Valley, Gill and Goldie were resting on clamshells in front of a huge, flat rock stage. The moonlight filled the stage with light, the perfect spotlight for the play that had just begun.

Goldie snuggled up beside Gill as she watched the actor fish flitting around above the rock stage. The Full Moon Theater was a very romantic place, and the play was an enjoyable one. Goldie was enjoying the play, and she thought this was a wonderful place, but…her mind just wasn't on it. She kept worrying about what was happening at the anemone. It seemed a little selfish of her to just dump Lash off somewhere while she went out with her boyfriend, especially when he wasn't feeling right. She was even more worried, remembering her son's condition. His low spirits had even been her fault! Slowly, Goldie sighed and lifted her head from Gill's side.

He glanced over at her. "Goldie? Is something the matter, honey?" It was the first time he'd used that word, and it was the same word he couldn't have imagined someone saying to him.

"Well…it's just that I'm worried about them."

Gill didn't need any specifications; he already knew who "them" was. He nodded. "I was a bit worried myself, but I didn't want to say anything to disturb our evening…"

They both glanced back at the stage where two swordfish were pretending to have a swordfight. One "stabbed" the other and he fell over, playing dead. They looked back at each other.

Goldie shook her head. "I have a really bad feeling."

Gill frowned. "Me too."

Goldie began to swim away. "This is useless. It's no use watching a play if you can't enjoy it. C'mon, let's go back to the anemone. I need to check on them." The two of them silently left the theater and navigated their way through the reef in the darkness of night.

---

Marlin had given up. It was nearly 10:00 and Lash still hadn't come crying home, begging for food and shelter. Dory hadn't come back either, and that was something more to worry about. Maybe Dory had found Lash and the two of them were hopelessly lost trying to find their way back to the anemone.

Marlin had even zoomed along the reef, calling to Eco Valley's residents, "Has anyone seen a little Moorish idol with a confused regal blue tang?" No one had.

Marlin just lied on the soft interior of the anemone, regretting what he had done, saying over and over again that he should have been watching Lash and that he shouldn't have let him have the chance to run away. Nemo kept assuring his father that it wasn't his fault and that he should have been glancing up every now and then to make sure Lash was still there.

"It's nobody's fault," Marlin decided. "The kid was depressed and desperate for attention. Unfortunately, he resorted to drastic measures…at least he didn't try to kill himself…although he may be dead right now for all I know!" Marlin shamefully buried his head in the anemone's tendrils.

Soon Goldie and Gill had reached the patch of coral where Nemo and Marlin's anemone sat. "Hello?" Goldie called into the waving forest. "Lash?! Lash?! Whiplash? Are you here?"

Marlin and Nemo popped out of the anemone. "Gill! Goldie!" Marlin cried. "You're back already?!"

"We were too worried," Gill explained. "It's no good trying to watch a play when you keep worrying about the child that's staying at someone else's house."

"So where's Lash?" Goldie asked.

Marlin stared at the ocean bottom. "Well…he…he sort of ran away."

Goldie's face fell. "What do you mean by "sort of ran away"? Where is my son?!"

"We don't know where he is," Nemo said. "We've been looking for him all day."

"He left us this note," Marlin said, pulling out the piece of Nemo's paper.

Goldie grabbed the paper and read what her son had scrawled in almost illegible handwriting. "I run away. I no come back. You no need me no more. …I'm running away. I'm not coming back. You don't need me anymore." Goldie dropped the piece of paper. "Oh, no! This is all my fault…"

"Your fault?" Marlin spoke up. "How is it your fault? I'm the one that let him get away, I should take full responsibility…"

"No, no…" Goldie replied, her voice beginning to crack. "I should have been paying more attention to him. I shouldn't have forgotten about him like I did…" Suddenly, she began crying, and Gill put a fin around her. "It's my fault. My son ran off on me. He probably thinks I don't care about him anymore… Oh, Lash. He was my only child, and now he's gone too…"

Marlin suddenly felt incredibly guilty.

Gill stared down at the bright merging colors of the reef, thinking about the past few events. He was the reason Lash had run away, barging in on this family and trying to force his way in. It was partly his fault. At last, he pulled away, giving them a determined look. "No. I'll go find him."

Goldie reached out to him. "Gill? No, you stay here. He's not your child; he's my responsibility." She began to swim off towards him, but he pushed her back.

"No, Goldie, I don't want you in danger. I'll find Lash. I promise; I won't come back until I find him!"

"Gill!" Goldie cried, but it was too late. The determined Moorish idol was already a black-and-white speck against the many swirling pastel colors of the reef. "Oh, no…" Goldie stared down into the reef community, now stony silent and dark. "Now both of them are gone…"

"It's okay," Marlin tried to comfort the worried mother. "I bet Gill will be back tomorrow with Lash. You watch."

Goldie didn't look too confident. She bent her fins in, thinking about all the bad things that could happen to the two of them.

"Tell you what," Marlin said. "We'll stay with you until they come back. They'll be back soon, I know they will." However, Marlin had no idea what he was getting himself into.


End file.
